Harlan Ellison Wants to Collaborate with Abrams on 'Star Trek 2'

I don't think anyone saw this coming. Harlan Ellison, the prickly sci-fi author best known to Star Trek fans for spending the last forty years bitching about changes to the only episode he ever wrote ("City on the Edge of Forever"), has opened his arms to J.J. Abrams, asking to be part of the new Star Trek creative team.

"If anyone out there thinks this melding has legs, let Abrams or anyone else with the chops to get in touch with me directly," Ellison pleads. "I am without full-time film-agent representation, by choice, at the moment; so if the job presents itself, I will work for pay."

Ellison has been a vocal critic of the late Gene Roddenberry for years, and he couldn't resist the urge to get a few cracks in, "Where's the 'downside' to getting topside the radar of J.J. Abrams? This guy ain't Roddenberry!...He's a writer I respect, whose work has frequently blown the lid off my box of surpriseability." The notoriously litigious Ellison recently settled a lawsuit with CBS/Paramount Television over monies owed from his classic episode.

I can't imagine Ellison working on the sequel to Abrams' hit feature film, but he might have a few interesting adventures up his sleeve for that new Star Trek television series that the folks at Bad Robot keep drumming up interest for. Time will tell.